AIA Philadelphia Lecture
Painting the Human Face in Classical Greece
Penn Museum
Tuesday, Mar. 25 2025, 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm ET
Free
The Archaeological Institute of America is North America's largest and oldest nonprofit organization dedicated to archaeology. The Institute advances awareness, education, fieldwork, preservation, publication, and research of archaeological sites and cultural heritage throughout the world.
Join us for a visually rich exploration how ancient Greek artists portrayed the human face in wall and panel paintings. Inspired by the philosophers’ belief that the face is the gateway to the soul, painters of the 6th, 5th, and especially the 4th centuries BCE pursued a heightened realism, striving to bring their subjects to life. Through masterful techniques, they captured gods, heroes, and historical figures in scenes drawn from both myth and reality, with a keen emphasis on naturalism and the illusion of three-dimensional depth. This lively survey will highlight the remarkable ways Greek artists achieved verisimilitude, bringing their figures to life on the canvas.
About the Speaker
Dimitris Plantzos, Ph.D.
Dimitris Plantzos, Ph.D., specializes in Greek art and archaeology at the University of Athens. He has done fieldwork at Argos Orestikon in Greece and Shathy/Alexandria in Egypt and is the author of The Art of Painting in Ancient Greece (2018)